Glossary

Batch
 Local term for coal mining waste tips which are often characterised by steep sloping sides. The area includes examples which have been planted with trees and examples where the tips remain bare and unvegetated

Biodiversity 
The variety of wildlife and the habitats they occupy.

Brashy 
Term used to describe soils containing a high proportion of loose broken rock.

Character
 A distinct, recognisable and consistent pattern of elements in the landscape.

Characteristics
 Those elements that in combination create the distinctive character of an area.

Characterisation
 The process of identifying areas of similar character, classifying and mapping them and describing their character.

Detractor
 Elements of the view which compromise the character or quality of landscape.

Drift 
Geological term used to describe superficial deposited material, often brought by ice or glacial meltwater, and distinguished from solid geology.

Feature
 Elements of the landscape which form important components of the landscape. They are usually prominent or eye-catching like tree clumps, church towers, or wooded skylines.

Field Pattern
 Angular           Field pattern with fields mainly with right-angled corners but not necessarily creating a regular field pattern.

Irregular           Field pattern of variable sized and variable shaped fields.

Rectilinear       Field pattern with fields of a rectangular shape repeated across the landscape.

Regular            Field pattern of fields of roughly the same size and shape repeated across the landscape.

Field size 
Field sizes have been analysed and described as small, medium and large within the context of the district using the following dimensions:-

Small              up to 3.5 ha

Medium          between 3.6 and 13.5 ha

Large              greater than 13.5 ha

Green Lane
 Grassed routes enclosed by hedges. Sometimes formed along estate boundaries or forming part of historic routes.

Head
 Geological term used to describe locally derived material deposited as a result of water carrying it from higher ground.

Horsiculture
 The use of land for keeping, stabling and exercising horses.

Ramsar Site
 Site identified under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat. This requires the conservation of listed sites.

SAC or cSAC
Special Area of Conservation or Candidate Special Area of Conservation. Sites of international importance intended to protect habitats of threatened species of wildlife identified under Article 3 of the EC Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora (the Habitats Directive). These sites are also SSSIs under national legislation, however special considerations, as set out by the Habitats Directive, apply to development proposals in or likely to affect them.

SPA
Special Protection Area. Sites of international importance classified under the EC Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. These sites are also SSSIs under national legislation, however special considerations, as set out by the Habitats Directive, apply to development proposals in or likely to affect them.

SSSI 
Site of Special Scientific Importance notified under section 28 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Development proposals in or likely to affect these must be subject to special scrutiny.

Bibliography

Agricultural Development Advisory Service (ADAS), Cotswold AONB Landscape Assessment and Environmental Guidelines, (1994)

Aston, M. and Lewis, C. (Ed.), The Medieval Landscape of Wessex (1994)

Avon County Council, Avon Landscape Strategy, (1988)

Birkenhead, F.W.F.S. Earl, John Betjeman Collected Poems, (1988).

Bristol and Avon Community Forest, Forest Plan, (1995)

Bryan, R., The British Countryside in Colour, (1950)

Countryside Agency and Scottish Natural Heritage, Interim Landscape Character Assessment Guidance, (1999)

Countryside Commission, Landscape Assessment Guidance CCP 423, (1993)

Countryside Commission, Landscape Assessment: a Countryside Commission approach, CCD18, (1987)

Countryside Commission, The Mendip Hills AONB, (1997)

Department of the Environment - Planning Policy Guidance (PPG) notes;

• PPG1 General Policy and Principles (1997)
• PPG15 Planning and the Historic Environment (1997)
• PPG7 The Countryside – Environmental Quality and Economic and Social Development (1997)

Findlay, D.C., Soils of the Mendip District of Somerset (1965)

Findlay, D.C., Soils of the Southern Cotswolds and Surrounding Country (1976)

Green, G. W. and Welch, F. B. A., Geology of the Country around Wells and Cheddar, (1977)

Green, G.W., British Regional Geology - Bristol and Gloucester Region, HMSO 1992

Hardy, P., The Geology of Somerset, Ex Libris Press (1999)

Kellaway G. A. (Ed.) and Bath City Council, Hot Springs of Bath – Investigations of the Thermal Waters of the Avon Valley (1991)

Lowry, B, (Ed.) 20th Century Defences in Britain (1996)

Morton, H. V., In Search of England, (1927)

Richards, M. B., The Cotswold Way - a walkers guide, Thornhill Press, Gloucester (1973)

Snowdon, P. Rivers, Villages and Valleys – A Journey through North East Somerset, Bristol and Bath (2000)

Soil Survey of England and Wales Soils of England and Wales – Sheet 5 South West England (1983)

Wansdyke District Council, Local Design Guide - External Building Materials

Wansdyke District Council, Wansdyke Local Plan Deposit Nov 1995 (1995)

Wansdyke District Council, Wansdyke Nature Conservation and Landscape Strategy, (1995)

Whitton, J., Geology and Scenery in Britain, Chapman and Hall (1995)

Winchester,S., The Map That Changed the World – The Tale of William Smith and the Birth of a Science, (2001)